The present invention relates to the field of treating meat products. Specifically, the present invention provides for the removal of fat from and the subsequent or independent flavor enhancement of meat products while maintaining the inherent pleasing texture and flavor of the meat. Consequently, meats processed according to this invention will be particularly important to consumers in their fight to reduce heart disease and obesity, without sacrificing the organoleptic qualities of the food they eat.
Heart disease is a major public health concern. Public Health Literature estimates that approximately 1.5 million Americans suffer a heart attack each year, and that 50% of all Americans will die of this insidious disease. Accordingly, much research has been devoted to the prevention and treatment of heart disease.
It is recognized that blood cholesterol levels can be a major factor in determining whether or not an individual will suffer from heart disease. People with elevated blood cholesterol levels have been found to be at a higher risk of developing heart disease than people who have relatively low blood cholesterol levels. It is believed that blood cholesterol levels are influenced by a number of factors. The factors determining an individual's blood cholesterol level are believed to be both genetic, factors over which an individual has no control, as well as environmental, factors over which an individual has control. One environmental factor shown to affect blood cholesterol levels is diet.
It has been clearly shown that a major factor contributing to a relatively high blood cholesterol level is a high dietary intake of saturated fats. A saturated fat is a fat which generally possesses no double or triple bonds (no unsaturation). It is known that animal fats are generally high in saturated fat. Additionally, a high dietary intake of cholesterol itself has been shown to increase blood cholesterol levels.
The American Heart Association ("AHA") has recommended that in order to reduce the risk of heart disease, individuals should reduce their daily dietary intake of fats and cholesterol. Specifically, the AHA has recommended (1) that individuals receive only 30% of their daily caloric intake from fat with only 10% of that amount being derived from saturated fat, and (2) that dietary cholesterol intake be kept below 300 milligrams per day.
Unfortunately, many individuals have demonstrated an unwillingness to modify their diets to meet the AHA guidelines concerning reduced intake of saturated fats and cholesterol. Generally, to reduce the dietary intake of saturated fats and cholesterol it is necessary to reduce the quantity of animal products, particularly red meat, which is consumed, and to replace it with vegetable products or other meat products such as fish and poultry which possess a lower percentage of saturated fat.
As evidenced in U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,659 issued April 13, 1976 to Hunt, it is known to treat meat products to remove a portion of the fat contained therein. Hunt describes an apparatus designed to cook a meat slurry and separate the rendered fat from the cooked meat. The apparatus includes a cooking receptacle for cooking the meat and a perforated member that is driven down into the cooking receptacle so that the cooked meat is forced toward the bottom of the cooking receptacle with the rendered fat passing through the perforated member thus enabling the fat to be separated from the cooked meat. Unfortunately, such extreme methods of removing fat from meat products produce industrial meat products that have an unacceptable appearance, texture and flavor for consumption in their original form by human beings.
Methods of enhancing the flavor of meat products by injecting uncooked meats with a flavor enhancing liquid are also known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,469 issued Aug. 28, 1973 to Gasior is directed to a unitary device designed to inject prepared flavorings into meat products prior to their cooking, to thereby improve the taste of the cooked meat products. The unitary device comprises a squeezable container adapted to hold a flavoring solution and a cap and needle, which cap and needle are adapted to be screwed onto the container such that the flavoring liquid contained within the container is in communication with the needle and can thereby be injected into an uncooked meat product. Other pertinent teachings are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,075,407 and 4,601,237.
Unfortunately, the known methods of treating meat products made from readily available meat cuts to reduce fat and enhance flavor are not capable of producing a meat product with a significantly reduced fat content which possesses the appearance, texture and flavor of an untreated meat product. Thus, from a consumer point of view, known fat reduction and flavor enhancement processes do not produce a reduced-fat meat product which is, from a practical standpoint, equally acceptable as composed to an untreated meat product.